HR573-119

What This Bill Does

The Studying NEPA's Impact on Projects Act rewrites NEPA section 201 to create an annual reporting system for environmental-review litigation and environmental impact statements. Beginning by July 1, 2026, each lead agency must submit to the Council on Environmental Quality data on every civil action alleging that an agency action violated NEPA during the prior June-to-June reporting period. The data must identify defendant agencies, plaintiffs, courts, appeals, alleged legal bases disaggregated by covered sector, litigation status, outcomes, remands, settlements, pending cases, and fee awards.

The same reports must track environmental impact statement length, appendix and citation length, counts by agency and subagency, trends in page counts, and data before and after the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Agencies must estimate EIS preparation costs, including full-time-equivalent personnel hours, contractor costs, direct costs, cooperating-agency costs, participating-agency costs, project-sponsor costs, and supervised contractor costs where practicable. They also must report 10-year timelines for major federal actions, including application submission, scoping, notice of intent, public EIS release, record of decision, and notice to proceed. CEQ must publish the resulting information and submit it to House Natural Resources, Senate Energy and Natural Resources, and Senate Environment and Public Works committees.

Who Benefits and How

House Natural Resources Committee staff, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee staff, permitting-reform policymakers, project developers, mining companies, energy producers, broadband providers, manufacturing companies, surface transportation sponsors, renewable-energy developers, water-resources project sponsors, and other covered sectors benefit because the reports expose where NEPA lawsuits, document length, costs, and timelines are concentrated. The data can support oversight, future permitting legislation, and project-planning decisions.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Council on Environmental Quality staff, federal lead agencies, agency NEPA offices, subagency permitting teams, project sponsors preparing EIS documents under agency supervision, cooperating agencies, participating agencies, and environmental-litigation data managers bear reporting burdens because they must collect case information, page counts, cost estimates, timeline milestones, sector classifications, court outcomes, settlements, and fee-award data every year.

Key Provisions

• Requires each lead agency to submit annual NEPA civil-action data to the Council on Environmental Quality.
• Requires litigation data on plaintiffs, defendant agencies, courts, appeals, legal bases, outcomes, settlements, remands, pending cases, and fee awards.
• Requires reporting on environmental impact statement length, appendix length, agency counts, subagency counts, and post-Fiscal Responsibility Act trends.
• Requires EIS cost estimates covering personnel hours, contractors, cooperating agencies, participating agencies, and project sponsors where practicable.
• Requires 10-year timeline reporting from permit application through notice to proceed for major federal actions.
• Requires CEQ publication and congressional reporting with covered-sector disaggregation.